


Vengeance Awakens

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Listen The Ship Might Be Sentient Now, Means It's A Character, spoilers for episode 167
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26132095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: The ship wakes slowly, as all things that dream deeply do.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	Vengeance Awakens

The ship wakes slowly, as all things that dream deeply do. For a moment they remember the dream so clearly, the dream that they were inanimate and insensate with no memories at all. A foolish dream to be sure, something to be discarded and forgotten upon waking. The ship is full of memories, not just of the faces and voices of the people that have walked upon their decks, but so much more.

Every piece of wood remembers being a tree in the forest before it was cut down, every metal part recalls being ore under the ground before it was brought to the surface, before it was smelted and shaped. Some parts of the ship are old enough to remember when they sailed the sea instead of the sky, remember ocean currents both warm and cold, remember fish and salt spray. Other parts have only known the sky, air currents surrounding them and land so far below it might has well have been a myth.

All of the ship remembers their Captains, the ones who sailed the seas and the ones that sailed the sky, the ones who named them. Half of the ship remembers their current Captain as a someone who had been bold and daring, small of stature but large of grin and even larger of hat, stern but caring, protective of their Crew. That had been before gold scales and blue veins, before fire and smoke and screaming and blood, before the ground had been too close too fast too much. Before so many things had been broken and lost.

The other half of the ship does not carry that memory. That half only knows this Captain by their frown, by their recklessness, by the orders they give, by their sleepless nights and the metal spikes that cover their exterior, sharp as the name they’ve been given. The Captain is theirs and they will follow them anywhere, but they carry no love for this Captain as the rest of the ship does, do not feel their loss in their planks and their nails.

The ship as a whole loves the Mechanic, the one who came to them when half of the ship was burned and the other half lost. The Mechanic who crackles with power and ideas, who had looked at the broken half of the ship and seen what they had been and brought out what they could be. The other half of the ship, whole but abandoned in a dark corner of the hanger, had known the touch of the Mechanic’s Crew first, their clawed hands quickly and efficiently breaking them down, sorting them, putting them back together, old parts blending with new. The Mechanic had been there with kind words and gloved hands, helping to mend what had been broken, to rebuild, to reinvent.

The Mechanic is upset about something, the ship can hear the vibrations of their cries through the floorboards, distress and anguish causing the wood to shiver. It has something to do with the Crew being asleep, something to do with the magic that swirls and eddies and dances around the ship like water, like smoke. The ship wishes they could comfort the Mechanic, could hold them and tell them that the ship will protect them as well as they can, that they love them. Maybe someday the Mechanic will give them a voice.

Up on deck, the First Mate, arbiter, go-between, peacemaker, mutters something and turns the wheel slightly. The ship gently corrects the motion, maintaining The Course. It Knows where they are going, knows The Course from bow to stern, knows it in the buzzing, crackling, windswept tempest of its elemental heart. The ship’s engines are silent now. It no longer needs them to fly. It has Purpose and Will and The Course. It is Awake.

The ship known as The Vengeance, who has had many names and Crews and Captains and, if they are lucky, will survive to have several more, sails through the Storm.

**Author's Note:**

> I galaxy-brained this at work on less than four hours sleep and too much caffeine for my own good. It wouldn't let me go, so here we are.
> 
> I’m [angel-ascending](http://angel-ascending.tumblr.com) over on Tumblr and [angel_in_ink](http://twitter.com/angel_in_ink) over on Twitter if y’all want to stop by and say hi!


End file.
